Will China Manufacturing Fall Victim to SARS?

ByJohn S. McClenahen Concern about the spread and mortality of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) already has created a dramatic slowdown in Asian travel. And that could, in turn, slow the growth of manufacturing in China, because investment and other decisions dependent on travel might take longer, suggests Edward P. Campbell, CEO of Nordson Corp., Westlake, Ohio. "What I would foresee happening in the absence of the reversal of [the] SARS situation is activity moving into slow motion. If decisions in the past took four weeks of interaction and consideration. . . that four weeks might expand to six weeks or eight weeks," Campbell says.